Apple on Tuesday announced a $10.2 billion profit for its fiscal second quarter on revenue of $45.6 billion. These results compare to revenue of $43.6 billion and profit of $9.5 billion, in the year-ago quarter. […]
Fender ends U.S. production of Ovation guitars
Fender Musical Instruments Corp., one of the largest guitar makers in the world, said Wednesday it is closing its Ovation plant in New Hartford, where nearly 50 employees work, due to low sales and “market conditions.”
Very sad.
iOS 8 Wishes
Federico Viticci did a nice job on bringing together some features he would like to see in the next version of iOS. One thing I’ve learned over the years is how different people’s wish lists for an operating system can be. Also, Viticci did a nice job on the site redesign.
iTunes Radio adds new “First Plays” and “Ones to Watch 2014”
iTunes Radio is bulking up its content. On Tuesday the company added First Play’s of Ray LaMontagne’s new album “SUPERNOVA” and the new Damon Albarn album “Everyday Robots.” The new “Ones to Watch 2014” station has many acts including Betty Who, The 1975, Wild Cub, Mø, London Grammar, Courtney Barnett, Chet Faker, and SOHN. […]
Daylite 5
A huge update. I really like Marketcircle and its products—they work hard and care about what they do.
Apple opens OS X betas to the public
Big news today from Apple: the company is opening its OS X Beta Seed Program to its customers. In the past, you needed to be a developer to access beta builds of OS X, but as of OS X 10.9.3, released earlier today, customers can also apply for access.
Twitter’s new Web profile now available to all users
Details of the new profile are available on Twitter’s Web site.
New York Times launches “The Upshot” Web site
Om Malik wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the new Web site, but we’ll see how it goes.
Auto-Tune EFX 3
Auto-Tune EFX 3’s new variable Retune Speed and Humanize controls provide an entirely new level of natural, realistic pitch correction. And with our unique Auto-Motion Vocal Pattern Generation, stunning new vocal effects are only a mouse click away.
I’ll be interested to see how the Humanize function helps.
Apple celebrates Earth Day around the world
Some great shots. Much respect, Apple.
Apple releases iOS 7.1.1
Apple says there are improvements to Touch ID, a bug fix for keyboard responsiveness and a fix for using Bluetooth keyboards with VoiceOver. The update can be downloaded on your iPhone by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
Apple environmental ad pokes fun at Samsung
This is so great.
Experts making tons of money at Apple, Samsung trial
Just as impressive is the amount of time the experts have spent on the case. Rinard said he had spent just over 800 hours on the case, for a total bill of $765,000, while Chris Vellturo, a damages expert who testified for Apple, revealed he’d been paid a stunning $2.3 million by Apple over the past few years for all his work on the case. That’s a lot of iPhones.
The jurors aren’t making quite as much money. The court provides them $40 per day with a raise to $50 per day after the 10th day of the trial.
Where do I sign up?
Former Apple designer redesigns playing cards
I must admit, the more I like at these, the more I like them.
Usability sins
It’s a “freemium” pay model, or a “reverse paywall,” that adds features for subscribers rather than substracting them for nonsubscribers. But it still creates classes of haves and have-nots: those who have to click the “single page” button to see a story on a single page and those who don’t.
This is based on Slate’s new membership system.
A letter from Apple’s VP of Environmental Initiatives
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environmental Initiatives, wrote a letter updating the public on the company’s progress.
Apple pushing into mobile payments
The company has been meeting with potential applicants for two new positions at Apple focused exclusively on building a business around the hundreds of millions of credit cards it already has on file. Apple is seeking to fill head of product and head of business development positions, one of these people said.
The biggest thing that Apple has is trust—they have my credit card and have for years. I trust them with that information, so I would use a its payment system.
iPhone owners don’t trade-in for the Galaxy S5
Gazelle saw iPhone trade-in volumes drop 35% compared to where they were last year on the day the Galaxy S4 launched in the U.S. Interestingly, the Galaxy S4 didn’t even go on sale at all U.S. carriers on the same day last year, so the Galaxy S5 saw fewer trade-ins from a much larger group of potential customers.
So, current Samsung owners are trading up to the new phone, but they aren’t attracting iPhone customers to trade down.
Choosing Web site colors
I really suck at choosing colors, but I know what I like when I see it—I also know what I don’t like. Designers that can pull this off are especially talented.
Microsoft’s Azure Web Sites service
Justin Williams recently moved his Web site to Azure. Microsoft has been getting a lot of play recently with Azure hosting apps and Web sites.
Unread RSS reader
This is such a great app.
Apple, Google vie for game developers
Both the companies are trying to lure game developers by offering premium placement to these games on their app stores’ home pages and features lists
Considering the reports of how few people spend money on Android apps, I’d be surprised if Apple didn’t win this battle.
Apple adds A&E, History Channel, and Lifetime to Apple TV
Apple today has added three new channels to the Apple TV lineup: A&E, The History Channel, and Lifetime. Each channel does require a cable subscription to unlock full content. At the time of launch, each channel only supports DirecTV, Verizon FiOS, and Cablevision Optimum, but the network says it will add support for more providers soon.
I always get excited about the new channels, until I see that you need a cable subscription.
Shakespeare’s annotated dictionary
If it’s real, it’s the literary find of the century. New York antiquarian booksellers Daniel Wechsler and George Koppelman believe they have found William Shakespeare’s annotated dictionary.
An incredible find.
An inside look at Apple’s environmentally-friendly data centers
Steven Levy gets a rare inside look at Apple’s data center in Nevada.
Create Typographic Images with Typo-Painter – only $5 [Sponsor]
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Backblaze: Backup your data online for $5 a month
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The Loop Magazine Issue 25
In this issue:
What’s better, an iPad or a MacBook for university; being a freelance writer; a great story about Axl Rose running off stage; nurturing curiosity through mentoring; and iTunes and Indie bands.
Lyric acoustic guitar microphone
This looks really interesting.
Super, double top secret photo of iPhone 7 that I found…
… In my beard.